Moral Letters to Lucilius Section 6

At nunc quis est, qui sic lavari sustineat? Pauper sibi videtur ac sordidus, nisi parietes magnis et pretiosis orbibus refugerunt, nisi Alexandrina marmora Numidicis crustis distincta sunt, nisi illis undique operosa et in picturae modum variata circumlitio praetexitur, nisi vitro absconditur camera, nisi Thasius lapis, quondam rarum in aliquo spectaculum templo, piscinas nostras circumdedit, in quas multa sudatione corpora exinanita demittimus, nisi aquam argentea epitonia fuderunt.

Qui consentirait de nos jours à se baigner si mesquinement ? On s’estime pauvre et misérablement logé, si les murs de nos bains ne resplendissent d’astragales dont l’ampleur égale la richesse ; si les marbres numides, pour trancher de couleurs, ne s’incrustent dans ceux d’Alexandrie ; si des festons de mosaïque, prodiges de travail et rivaux de la peinture, ne serpentent tout autour ; si le verre ne lambrisse les plafonds ; si la pierre de Thasos, jadis la rare curiosité de quelque temple, ne revêt ces piscines où nous plongeons nos corps desséchés par d’excessives transpirations, et si des bouches d’argent n’y vomissent l’onde à grands flots.

But who in these days could bear to bathe in such a fashion? We think ourselves poor and mean if our walls are not resplendent with large and costly mirrors; if our marbles from Alexandria are not set off by mosaics of Numidian stone, if their borders are not faced over on all sides with difficult patterns, arranged in many colours like paintings; if our vaulted ceilings are not buried in glass; if our swimming-pools are not lined with Thasian marble, once a rare and wonderful sight in any temple - pools into which we let down our bodies after they have been drained weak by abundant perspiration; and finally, if the water has not poured from silver spigots.